Paid in Full

At the start of a new year, people love to make predictions. Who will win the election, who will lift the trophy, whether the economy will rise or fall. We are fascinated by predictions because the future is a mystery. So let me make a prediction of my own, but not a guess about headlines. Let me tell you something about your life that you may not hear on the news, and that your pastor may never have put quite this way.

Here is the prediction, and it rests entirely on one verse, John 19:30: your sin does not have to be your problem anymore. This is not a wish. It is not a prayer request you must say amen to in order to make it true. Your sins, your mistakes, your issues, however bad, however stubborn, however dreadful they feel, need not keep you from entering into the blessing and purpose God has for your life.

How can anyone say that so confidently? Someone is surely thinking, you do not know how badly I struggle, how undisciplined I am with my time, my tongue, my thoughts. And you are right, I do not know the details of your struggle. But I do know John 19:30. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished.'

The most powerful word Jesus ever spoke

There is a single Greek word behind that English phrase 'It is finished.' It is the word Jesus cried out from the cross: Tetelestai.

It may be the most powerful single word in all of his ministry. It was his last word as a mortal man, and the moment he spoke it, the apparent tragedy of Calvary turned into a scene of victory. The earth shook, the rocks split, the veil of the temple tore in two, and the graves of the saints were opened. Even the words of creation in Genesis, when God spoke and the universe leapt into being, do not carry more weight than this, because this word could not simply be spoken. The Son of God had to die in order to say it.

Most English Bibles render Tetelestai as 'It is finished,' and rightly so, for it means that something has been completed, perfected, accomplished in full, with consequences that endure on and on. But the word carried a deeper meaning in Jesus' day, and he had that meaning in mind. In the marketplaces of the ancient world, Tetelestai was the word stamped across a bill when a debt had been fully settled.

Stamped across your account

Imagine buying a piece of furniture from a carpenter on credit for a hundred denarii, agreeing to pay it off over three months. On the day you made the final payment, the carpenter would take your receipt and write one word across it: Tetelestai. Paid in full. From that moment, that furniture could never be held against you again. The debt was closed forever.

That is what happened at the cross. Scripture says God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). In his own body Jesus became all your sin, past, present, and future. Then, according to Colossians 2:14, God canceled the record of debt that stood against you, set it aside, and nailed it to the cross in the person of his Son. Jesus, who had become our sin, cried out, Paid in full. He did not pay a small portion of the debt. He did not pay half, or even most. He paid all of it.

So if your sins have been paid in full, can you see why they cannot have the final say over you? They have been settled. Tetelestai. And here is where it gets even better: Jesus did not only pay the debt you owed, he purchased for you a life you could never have earned. He paid in full for blessing you do not deserve. He paid in full for healing you do not deserve. You do not have to add anything to what he has already completed.

A double portion of grace

This is the double comfort the Lord promised through Isaiah: 'Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins' (Isaiah 40:1-2).

Jesus did not merely secure the forgiveness of our debt and hand us a ticket to heaven. He also opened the door to the grace we need for daily life. Whatever you are carrying into this season — a need for provision, a longing in your family, a cry for freedom from fear and doubt, a hope for a marriage to come alive again — you can bring it to God knowing you do not have to bribe him or perform for him. The One who did not spare his own Son will not now relate to you on the basis of your record. He relates to you on the basis of the cross.

Think of the different things people carry into a new year. Some come believing God for a job, and the good news is that provision has already been secured in the finished work of Christ. Some come longing for a child, some for deliverance from fear or the weight of old attacks, some for a breakthrough in their studies, some for tenderness to return to a tired marriage. None of these are earned by our striving; they are received from a Father who has already given us his best. So we do not approach God as beggars trying to twist his arm, but as beloved children stepping into what he has already made available at such a cost.

So live like it is true

This is exactly what Paul means when he writes, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace' (Romans 6:14). Under the law, iniquities prevail against us. Under grace, they do not get to reign. So you can lift your voice and say, sin shall not rule over me, nor over my family, nor over my future.

Consider what 2 Corinthians 5 truly means. It means you are a forgiven sinner. It means you are one who has been declared righteous with the very righteousness of God in Christ. That is what the Bible calls a saint. And because that is who you are, Scripture simply says: be who you are. Live who you are. 'Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called' (Ephesians 4:1), the calling into the life Jesus purchased for you. Not striving to earn it, but living out what is already yours.

There is an old line believers have treasured for generations: my sin, not in part but the whole, has been nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. That is the heart of it. This is why Paul can declare, 'There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:1). Not one day, not eventually, but now.

So receive it. Open your heart and pray honestly: Lord, I receive the grace to live as who you have made me. Sin will not master me. Anger will not master me. Unforgiveness will not master me. And when the accuser comes to remind you of your failures, remember the word stamped across your account by the blood of Jesus. Paid in full. You bear those sins no more, and the God who paid such a price is not far off or reluctant. He is near, he is for you, and he is calling you to walk into the year ahead as someone whose debt is already, completely, gloriously settled.